For some, having a birthday in lockdown has made this year extra special. People have gone to extraordinary lengths to make sure birthdays in lockdown are ones that won’t be forgotten. Here Kerry speaks for herself about her wonderful creation.

Hello!

My name is Kerry and I am one of the team at Festival Church Chester.

One of the things I love to do in my spare time is to bake, and as it was my birthday last month, I decided to make my own lockdown birthday cake. I was excited about having the opportunity to make my own cake, with all the flavours I liked the best!

Since I am really enjoying chocolate orange at the moment, I decided to make a chocolate orange flavoured cake. As I thought about it – and I started thinking about it about three weeks before my birthday – I wondered if I could make a cake that looked like a chocolate orange as well as tasted like one. This was the result!

I used a smaller version of the chocolate orange cake and buttercream recipe from one of my favourite recipe sites, Jane’s Patisserie, which you can find the link for here: https://www.janespatisserie.com/2018/10/26/terrys-chocolate-orange-cake/

I also “had” to treat myself to a new cake tin: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0000VZ3YM/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I baked the cake in two halves, let it cool, and then sliced each half again, to make four layers. I then used the chocolate orange buttercream to stick each half back together, and chilled. Then I stacked them with buttercream in between, and a plastic straw to stop the layers sliding off. I then crumb coated the whole cake with buttercream to help the icing stick.

I rolled out orange icing and rolled specks of yellow icing into it to create the texture, then added it to the cake – it wasn’t as neat as I had wanted it to be, but I have learned lessons for next time!

The final touch was a printed circle of icing that I designed on the computer, editing the Terry’s Chocolate orange logo to read “Kerry’s Chocolate Orange”. I ordered it from www.edibleprints.co.uk the week before, and it definitely gave the perfect finish to the cake!

If you’re looking to get baking, or to try a new recipe, I would definitely recommend www.janespatisserie.com